8 Essential Tajiri Matches

After playing happy-go-lucky babyface throughout most of 2001, where he formed a hilarious partnership with commissioner Regal, Tajiri started turning bad in early 2002. Now the exclusive property of Smackdown following the first ever WWE Draft, Tajiri annoyed fans by forcing his girlfriend/manager Torrie Wilson to dress in a geisha against her will.

Standing up for the rights of men who wanted to leer at scantily-clad vixens was Billy Kidman, Wilson's real-life partner and future husband. The two clashed for Kidman's Cruiserweight Championship - which he'd won from Tajiri 19 days earlier on Smackdown - in the opener of April's Backlash.

Things were pretty even in the early going, with the two performers trading moves as well as one or two stinging knife-edge chops. A second rope dropkick and headscissors gained an advantage for Kidman but Tajiri soon came back by throwing BK into the barricade hard.

Kicks and a chinlock wore Kidman down, with the fans in Kansas City surprisingly rallying behind Kidman to get him back into the match. WWE cruiserweight matches rarely had this level of fan participation back then. Tajiri began focusing on the lower back, with Kidman periodically managing to make short-lived comebacks, to no avail.

Eventually, he was able to gather some momentum, withstanding a Tarantula and countering a handspring back elbow into a dropckick in mid-air. A beautiful German suplex got two for Tajiri, as did a salty kick to the chin. Kidman countered a powerbomb in the closing stretch (you simply cannot powerbomb Kidman) but missed a Shooting Star Press, leaving him exposed on the mat.

Shockingly, Kidman kicked out of the BIG KICK, leading to the 12,500 in Kemper Arena to vigorously chant his name. A second rope BK Bomb/Lo Down also got two, before Tajiri spewed red mist into his opponent's eyes as he was set to be powerbombed, which secured the win.

Tajiri was the new Cruiserweight Champion, established himself as the top heel of the cruiserweight division and kicked off Backlash in style with a tidy and, importantly, heated ten-minute affair.